Help! new to Enfields

[cheese1566]

Hey all!! My first posting!

I recently bought an Ishapore 2A 7.62 (1965). It was easy to find research on this gun and the stories of India in producing it. The Ishapore is complete and only needs a good cleaning. I see parts are available from Numrich.

I pulled out an old garage sale find of my dads from 10 years ago. It too is a Lee Enfield based gun but was turned into a sporter at one time, the safety is stripped off, the barrel was either stripped down, and the sight pins filled in and filed smooth, and an aftermarket Monte Carlo sporter stock was installed. No sights wahtsoever and the underside sear portion of the cocking lever is broken off. (Having the new Ishapore, I now know what it is and whats wrong.) He paid something like $10 ten years ago for the entire thing.

The marking is stamped "Lithgow SHT.LE 1919" all in a crest. The safety is missing all of its parts and the rear of the cocking knob is round, rather than the square serrated style on my Ishapore.

What do I have? I am thinking it is a No.1 MkIII. I would like to order parts for it and want to make sure.

Plus, is Numrich the place to go?

Thanks from the newbie!

Information

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[jmoore]

You ineed have a SMLE Mk III(possibly*), later referred to as a No.1.

The cocking piece can be either "rounded" or "flat or square serrated", doesn't matter as far as fucntion goes.

Numrich is OK, but they often don't know what's in stock- they'll just send you random (usually correct) parts that they have.
Springfield Sporters is ofren recommended- I haven't ordered from them myself.

Welcome, feel free to jump in!

P.S. Unless that Lithgow has sentimental value, its probably best to regard it as a source of parts from the monetary point of view.

[RJW NZ]

A 1919 no 1 mk3* lithgow is a nice find, well made and shoot well too. I prefer Springfield Sporters myself, although I've never had a problem with numrich either. The parts from SS are used or brand new, cheap prices etc, and the guys there know their stuff. The no1 mk3 also has an exploded drawing for good parts recognition.
They don't answer emails very quickly but their ordering system works well and I've never had a mis placed order.
You could restore it all back to original looking for around a hundred bucks at a guess, depending on whats missing. If you want an authentically marked wood set with aussie marks then watch ebay usa and ebay Australia, they come around regularly. You don't need brand new looking wood, something with moderate to light use would look in character. Good find, always nice to keep thing like this in the family.
ps welcome to the forum.
and pps, there's an enfield link site, 100 essential links for Enfield Rifles. the links are here at the forum too.
and
pps the enfield reference library here at the forum is awesomely interesting.
ppps, peruse gunbroker.com, you'll get quite a lot of info just by watching enfield ads, and in your case, about lithgow ones.

[Sunray]

Lithgow is where Australian No. 1's were made. Your's was made in 1919. Not a bad thing. W.W. I was over. Factory workmanship tended to be better between the wars. Maybe not so much in 1919 though.
Start with headspace guages. A very large proportion of 'sporterized' No. 1 Mk III rifles have bad headspace. Easy, but expensive fix, if it's bad. You need a handful bolt heads to try with the guages until you find one that gives safe headspace. They run $12.50 each from Gunparts. $10 each from Springfield Sporters.
"...safety is missing all of its parts..." Likely removed to clear a scope. Any place that has the parts will do. The cocking piece will need replacing too.

[cheese1566]

I like Springfield Sporters prices and shipping compared to Numrich. I sent them an email asking if they had an extra extractor for my 7.62 Ishapore 2A. Mine has a small chip on the face, but I think I can get by. Numrich has them for $15. I may get one before they dry up.

I figure the safety parts and cocking piece won't be that bad in price to maybe get the old Sporter going. Something to play with anyway. Or I may snatch parts off it for Ishy spares!

[Steve H. in N.Y.]

Should you decide to restore your Lithgow start with the rear sight base. I've found that they are not necessarily 100% interchangeable. If that goes well then get the rest of the parts.